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[EDITORIAL] To the Catholic Church: Is divorce more important than genocide?

Members of the Catholic Church had been eagerly awaiting a very important announcement from Pope Francis.
He was supposed to give direction on important matters that have been threatening to pull the Church apart; how to treat what he preferred to call “imperfect Catholics” who had veered away from the Church dogma.

Members of the Catholic Church had been eagerly awaiting a very important announcement from Pope Francis.

He was supposed to give direction on important matters that have been threatening to pull the Church apart; how to treat what he preferred to call “imperfect Catholics” who had veered away from the Church dogma.

That “important” Papal pronouncement was whether it was right for a Catholic to divorce and remarry as well as the issue of homosexuality. And true enough, after a lot of soul searching, the Pope released what he titled “Amoris Laetitia,” (The Joy of Love) as guidance.

It took less than two years to come up with the document.

Yet more than 20 years after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the Church has yet to come clean on its role in this tragedy. Instead it ex-filtrated and shielded rogue priests who had blood on their hands.

Does this mean that divorce and homosexuality take precedence over genocide and war crimes? What will it take Pope Francis to outdo his predecessors and take the bold step of taking some share of responsibility?

The Catholic Church in Rwanda was a very politicized institution, even during colonial times. It played a pivotal role in the unfolding of things and in their crafting. Failure to speak out before and during the Genocide could be compensated by just a mere mea culpa, but that seems hard to come.

It does not need all the 260 pages it took the Pope’s document where he says that “no one can be condemned forever”. It was not the whole Church that sided with génocidaires, but failing to disassociate itself with the guilty will “forever” be condemned.

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